


See the World in Flickers

by stardropdream



Category: xxxHoLic
Genre: F/F, F/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-18
Updated: 2013-02-18
Packaged: 2017-11-29 18:56:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/690329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardropdream/pseuds/stardropdream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zashiki-Warashi spends her days now watching the shop's entrance. Ame-Warashi disapproves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	See the World in Flickers

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on LJ December 3, 2009.

“You should stop doing this to yourself,” a voice said behind her, light and not quite accusing.  
  
She startled, turning around quickly, hands flopping out from inside the sleeves of her jacket, too long for her. She threaded her fingers together, a nervous habit as her eyebrows furrowed together.  
  
“I’m… not doing anything,” she said once her words found their way from her throat. She cleared it a few times, trying to make her voice sound a bit steadier than it had moments ago. She blinked her large eyes.  
  
“Exactly,” the blue-haired spirit said with an aggravated sigh. Her gloved hands, poised on her hips, twitched slightly, as if wanting to reach out and grasp her nervous hands. But she resisted. Her umbrella, shut, swung idly along her wrist, tapping against her legs as she surveyed the house over the girl’s shoulder. Her blue eyes, as dark as a summer storm, narrowed. She tutted, once, a small clicking of her tongue against the roof of her mouth.  
  
The zashiki-warashi shifted uneasily, knowing that the ame-warashi was not judging her or aggravated with her. Yet, seeing the annoyance etched into her young face, giving her frown marks that seemed to old even for her, only served to make her nervous.  
  
“Um…” she began.  
  
“You stand outside this shop every day, it seems. You have a wish, so why won’t you just go in and visit that human yourself?”  
  
She looked down, hands dropping to the hem of her dress, fiddling with the fabric self-consciously. Her face was a bright red.  
  
“Or is it that you’re afraid, then?” the rain spirit said, her voice heavy with a sigh.  
  
“It isn’t that… I mean, it isn’t only that,” she said and quickly amended, her face growing in color to the color consistency of beets. She cleared her throat again. “I just…”  
  
She trailed off, looking helplessly at the other spirit.  
  
Ame-Warashi released a long, aggravated sigh and shook her head. “Never mind, it isn’t my business.”  
  
“Tha…” she began.  
  
“And don’t thank me. Because worrying over you _is_ my business. And I don’t like you just standing out here willy-nilly day in and day out. That human of yours must know that you’re out here and yet he does not come to greet you? Rude!” she scoffed. “Humans really are the worst.”  
  
“It certainly isn’t anything like that…” she began, but trailed off when the ame-warashi turned a sharp look back towards the shop, hand clenching around the handle of her umbrella. She looked as if she were about ready to march down the pathway and wage war on the sad, lonely shop owner inside, but resisted only because tears threatened to prickle the corner of the zashiki-warashi’s eyes.  
  
She turned her nose up, still looking miffed, “Hmph!”  
  
“I just wish that… there was something that I could do for him,” she whispered. “The fact that he doesn’t come out here… that must mean that the only thing I can do is stay away, for now.” She inhaled, her voice wavering and she couldn’t stop the way one single tear dripped out from the corner of one of her eyes. “My wish… I don’t think it’s something he would be able to grant, nor would I be able to pay.”  
  
The rain spirit was silent, her face going from aggravated to a more thoughtful, morose expression.  
  
Zashiki-Warashi inhaled again, trying to steady the shaking hands clenched together against her chest. “And I wouldn’t want him to take an unequal payment on to himself…”  
  
“That’s enough,” Ame-Warashi declared suddenly, back straightening as she carefully set her umbrella down against the post of the shop’s gateway, and used both hands to grasp the zashiki-warashi’s own. She held tight and held her gaze just as tightly, refusing to look away. Zashiki-Warashi didn’t dare look away, eye widened in shock. The rain spirit regarded her a moment, then said, “I won’t stand for you to merely stand out here sadly like this. Those protectors of yours would be angry if they learned you’ve been crying.”  
  
She blinked in surprise when one gloved hand rose to brush aside tears she hadn’t realized were consistently falling down her cheeks. She closed her eyes, leaning into the other spirit’s hand, almost unaware of the intimacy of the gesture. The rain spirit froze, but didn’t move her hand away after that.  
  
“I’m sorry…” she whispered.  
  
“Don’t apologize. It isn’t you who has to be sorry,” the other said primly. She huffed slightly, and lifted her other hand to cup the zashiki-warashi’s face, her touch soft and gentle. Her expression shifted, grew less severe as she gave her the smallest of smiles. “You’re too kind to do this to yourself.”  
  
“I’m not… doing anything…”  
  
“Exactly,” the spirit whispered. “You are—”  
  
Whatever the spirit was about to say, however, was suddenly interrupted when someone running by the two spirits knocked into zashiki-warashi, sending the other spirit careening into ame-warashi, knocking the two girls down. The human sped past without looking back, rushing down the pathway and into the shop. There was a short silence, and then the familiar chorus of the soulless twins cheering out a ‘welcome, new customer!’  
  
Ame-Warashi lay on the ground, dazed a moment before her face exploded into a red anger. “RUDE!” She forced herself up, hands carefully grasping zashiki-warashi’s shoulders and helping her to her feet. She huffed, and it almost seemed like the day grew cloudier as she stomped to her umbrella and rolled up the sleeves of her black dress. “RUDE. RUDE. RUDE. I’ll _show_ that foolish human who’s boss. Who does that stupid fool think they are, just knocking into someone without saying anything! Rude!”  
  
“Ame-Warashi,” Zashiki-Warashi protested gently, looking flustered and ringing her hands together. “I-it was only a human… t-they couldn’t have seen us, not like this. They were just… it was an empty space for them—”  
  
“I. Don’t. Care.” The ame-warashi looked about ready to usher in a monsoon. She began walking diligently towards the pathway leading up to the house.  
  
In a rare moment of confidence, however, the zashiki-warashi strode forward and grasped the other’s wrist, holding firm, lips pursed together. “Please,” she said. “P-please…”  
  
The ame-warashi stopped, face still looking completely enraged, before the expression seeped out of the lines of her face, though her eyes still stormed angrily. She released a long, angry breath and hissed out, “ _Fine._ ”  
  
Zashiki-Warashi’s expression softened. “T-thank you…”  
  
“Hmph,” she said as primly as one could. She stood up straighter, smoothing a hand across the front of her dress. “Rude humans… that’s why I cannot stand them.”  
  
Zashiki-Warashi watched the shop’s door a long moment, expression distant and wistful, before she let out a small sigh. She turned her attention towards the rain spirit, trying her best not to let her eyes betray her sadness.  
  
Feeling the ame-warashi’s hand grasping her own, she knew that she had failed. She lowered her eyes.  
  
“Let’s go,” the rain spirit offered, and the other spirit nodded. She tried not to cry.  
  
They floated into the air together, underneath the ame-warashi’s umbrella, before fading away into water droplets.


End file.
